RCA CHAMPIONSHIPS

August 16, 1995

Todd Martin

TODD MARTIN: I am asked that a lot. And - no. But I was pleased. I mean, satisfaction is, I think, elementary school report cards, I think, are screwed up. Satisfactory should be a very high scale and I am not satisfied barely ever, so I was pleased with the way I played. I had a little bit of a lapse of concentration in the first set when I served for it. But then again Jonathan played a very good game. So it is hard to get on myself too much, but I bounced back from that after a couple of games pretty well and just was, you know, fortunate enough to hang in there long enough to, you know, to catch a few breaks.

TODD MARTIN: Well, Jonathan and I -- he is really as good of a friend as I have on the Tour and it is strange, we ate breakfast together; ate lunch together; joking around walking out on to the court today and we -- so it is no surprise that we practice a lot together and I kind of like to goof around a little bit and he is pretty serious, and at least on the practice court, and he always gets mad at me for doing that when I practice with him and then today it was just by chance, I got wrong footed badly, but the ball was, I knew, right where I like it if I am going to hit that shot and I think I tried to hit it about as hard as I hit my first serve and it hit the ground, I think, four feet from me, but I hit it on the strings at least. I don't think he liked that one today anymore than he does in practice.

TODD MARTIN: He would have said "I know why you practice that now."

TODD MARTIN: Well, at night it is very pleasant to play, other than the fact that you feel like you are showering with your close on. That is the perfect temperature. It is nice to be able to sweat. You don't really have to worry about any kind of muscle strains or anything like that. It is just trying to stay dry, but during the day, really every effort you make between points should be just to relax and stay dry and certainly I don't think many of the guys have their mindset on joking around too much during the heat of the day.

TODD MARTIN: Bailed me out occasionally, but I don't know what it was, but my service percentage usually is fairly high and today I don't feel like it was. I doublefaulted quite a bit and that has a little bit to do with a different ball and a different court surface this week and my doublefaults were, for the most part, positive doublefaults. I mean, I was going for good second serves and not just trying to get them in, but that is something that is going to need to improve.

TODD MARTIN: Well, geez, the ball is flying a ton. They are full of air and, you know, you buy a can of balls at WALMART and you pull them out and if they are flat you are pretty disappointed; pull them out and they are this hard, you are saying, geez, I can use these for the next four months. That is how I used to feel when I was about eight or nine when my mom and dad would give me a can of balls. Now I kind of like them a little bit less pressurized. These are like rocks and they are basically flying like rocks. Hopefully we will all adjust to it so that tennis gets better and better throughout the week.

TODD MARTIN: Well, I think whoever employed the legends this week, employed them too much. I don't think 6 hours of work a day in this heat was very fair. I was talking to Fred and Davidson (sic) and those guys, geez, every day was just a matter of getting through the day. I agree with them to a point, but also that we have a week off, or a lot of us have a week off between now and the U.S. Open, and I think whoever does well here and especially if they spend themselves duly, I think they will know and I hope they will know that they need to take a few days off and really try to recuperate as much as possible and, you know, even if it is sacrificing as little practice time between this Sunday and next Monday, or the following Monday, I think it is very important for us to be fresh when we get to the U.S. Open and play the first round, rather than at our peak right then because it is a two week long tournament and hopefully the peak comes sort of gradually as you go along.

TODD MARTIN: I only played him once and that was last year at the U.S. Open. The conditions are - minus the heat - the playing conditions were fairly similar. The ball was flying a bit. The court was somewhat quick, but it was extremely windy on the day that we played and I think that hurts both of us, but I think it might have hurt him a little bit more because he is an even more go-for-it type of player than I am, and he is extremely talented and if he gets on, if his shots start to catch, then I am going to have to be running around a lot and digging back, but hopefully my serve will be going well and I will be able to dictate play that way.

TODD MARTIN: Well, I have got a hodgepodge of Lancing friends, North Western friends, Indianapolis friends, just, you know, being from the midwest, I think I run into a lot more people here and Cincinnati, than the other guys do, and hopefully they are being loyal to me.

TODD MARTIN: Thanks, guys.